1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to printers and, more particularly, to high speed printers having a paper feed path for manually fed or continuous roll papers, a paper feed path for cut paper sheets and a paper feed path for continuous forms.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
High speed printers, such as those utilizing matrix printing techniques, have become extremely popular and are desirable for use in as many applications as possible. It is extremely desirable to incorporate high speed printers in office systems to satisfy the growing market demand for increased speed in correspondence quality and word processing output for rough draft and data processing requirements. To be acceptable for use in office systems, high speed printers are preferably of a small size to be supported on a desk or table top and preferably should be able to print on various types of paper including cut paper sheets, continuous roll paper, individual sheets of paper of varying sizes and continuous forms. Prior art printers cannot accept the various types of paper utilized in present day office systems and, thus, have the disadvantages, when incorporated into an office system, of limiting the type of printout available for office work.
Prior art apparatus have had the capability of supplying two feeds to a typewriter or printer, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,483 to Lundquist et al, which utilizes a dual feed apparatus for a typewriter such that paper can be fed downwardly to the rear of a platen cylinder, as is conventional, or upwardly from below the platen cylinder by a tractor drive, and as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,668 to Yanagawa, which provides apparatus for feeding paper into a machine either manually or with the use of a cassette feeder. Prior art apparatus, accordingly, has the disadvantage of not having sufficient versatility to be acceptable in office systems since the type of printout is limited.